to the point that FIP arguments in favor of De La Rosa are growing tiresome. In not one major league season has De La Rosa outpitched his FIP, coming closest in 2005 at 4.48 compared to 4.04.

Almost as consistent as his underperforming to his FIP is De La Rosa’ posting of a strand rate lower than league average. If 70% is more or less a benchmark for average, De La Rosa has top that once, 2005 again, but his strand rate has slipped the last three seasons. While strand rates tend to vary for pitchers, a consistently lower for De La Rosa supports a trend, and the theory that De La Rosa lacks the mental toughness to succeed consistently with men on base. Couple that with a career .330 BABIP allowed, and a walk rate routinely in the fours, and De La Rosa will always fight these demons.

Looking at FIP too much for support for De La Rosa is fools gold. Beyond that, his career FIP of 4.73 evensuggests he’s not a pitcher worth waiting around to find improvement. Jorge’s 28 years old and he is what he is, a number five starter that predominantly gets his outs by the strikeout, but is far from a complete pitcher.

I do believe it’s in the Rockies best interest to consider replacing him, but we must assume that such replacements would come from within, and that presents a bit of a problem:

Talent-wise, Chacin and Rogers are superior pitchers to the options ahead of them on the ladder, but the Rockies likely don’t have the time to allow for the adjustment in skipping levels. Plus, Chacin likely needs a full season in AA to continue to face quality hitters while developing a game plan with two solid pitches and an average third one. Rogers is very close, His command is superior to all other options, and his stuff is good enough to get big league hitters out, but the Rockies may not have to push him if they can avoid it.

In my mind, there are two options to De La Rosa, Morales and Hynick. Hynick is a real wild card as a smoke and mirrors pitcher. His K and BB rates are similar to Cook, but the GB% isn’t close. Hynick’s working at his best when he’s mixing in a solid splitter with three other average pitches to keep hitters off balance and generate weak contact. His BABIP has stayed relatively consistent from year to year, so there is some evidence to suggest that he could continue to outpitch his FIP. Yet, often times, pitchers like Hynick can’t uphold the gimmick against major league hitters.

Morales, in many ways, is the younger version of De La Rosa, but that alone makes him more appealing as someone that still has time to improve on the mental and physical deficiencies in his game. Morales has laready shown some promise in his AAA stint in pitching around runners on base, but I still believe this is a delicate situation and would worry like to see Morales not return until the team is confident he’s right in AAA.

My plan would be to promote Hynick first, knowing full well that the risk of him being a less appealling option exists. Should Hynick struggle worse, Morales would then get the call, having added an additional 3-4 starts in AAA. Should both prove incapable of holding down the spot through July, then you could probably make the call to Rogers. Bottom line, the Rockies do have internal options to De La Rosa,and they don’t have to wait for him to solve a problem he has yet to show improvement on.